Korean Job Discussion Forums

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Why is it that so many weirdos and morons with no sense of etiquette latch on to us? Koreans reading this board - does it happen to you when you visit western countries?

Last night I met up with my Canadian friend for drinks and he had a sudden new best friend in tow. Fine, I thought; I guess he's harmless and friendly enough, and I was doing my best to be polite to him. He had a 'friend' / 'girlfriend' who was 27 stop by (he was 45) and she was exceptionally polite to me. Then my Korean friend who's pretty fluent in English stopped by and I thought great, now we have someone who can translate. But ajoshi-babo starts giving him a bunch of rude banmal crap, basically saying the equivalent of 'hey boy whatever' even though I've explained that my friend is also an English teacher and we're good friends. Like, hello moron, I'm going to ditch my friend a few years younger than me who speaks English, whom I've been hanging out with for the past year and whose family I even know, and make you, an incoherent git eleven years older than me whom I've just met, my new best friend. What the hell goes through some of these ajoshis heads? My Korean friend wanted to deck the guy but I took him aside and told him we were going to another bar, I paid the bill, and I said a big 'Bye-bye!' to ajoshi-babo as I waved my hand (I had greeted him by getting up, bowing, and greeting him in jondaemal) and we went at had a pitcher at the bar down the road.

Why do we as westerners continually get latched on to by these losers? Oh, and apparently this guy has a daughter in grade six at the local elementary school so there's a 50% chance I'll get her in middle school next year. Hurray.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Interesting.

I was really fortunate in Thailand that I never had any of those klingon types latching onto me.

Out here it's simple. Just don't talk to anybody.

It's even harder when it's another foreigner who latches on and you can't get rid of them. It's difficult to pretend you don't understand them when they are speaking English.

The Hierophant · Joined: 13 Sep 2005

Scowl, roll-eyes, ignore. Scowl, roll-eyes, ignore. Works like a charm.

pdx · Joined: 19 Jan 2007

I honestly think it's because of the language barrier. Maybe you can't tell they're a weirdo because of the language barrier (or they think that), OR they've found that Korean people may not accept them as much so they'll go to foreigners.

riley · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: where creditors can find me

Being different than the norm always means that the freaks and losers will single you out. I've noticed that I can be a freak magnet at times.

That's why I always felt sorry for the exchange students back home, you know that the first person to be really friendly to them is the lonely, friendless virgin.

Juregen · Joined: 30 May 2006

There are some nice idiots though.

I met one, and he was the friendliest most considered person i ever met.

I am on a line that leads to places where very few foreigners live, so he told me in childrens korean that this train was going to the place i lived, and that i should go to achasan (Achasan is a station i frequently visit due to having family there) In other words, this person with low intelect knew me from a station and was trying to show me the way.

So i told him i had to go in the correct direction. I had my back to the tracks working on my laptop, and a train passed by. He protected me from the passing train by putting himself against me with his back.

This might have been the least intelligent person i have ever met before, in a scientific sense, but i never was treated as kindly as that man.

It is still very mindboggling how he knew i go regularly to Achasan in the first place.

CasperTheFriendlyGhost · Joined: 28 Feb 2007

Interesting question. 80% of the Koreas I end up in tow with i want to ditch within 2 minutes. Occasionally you run into an interesting person. On at least one occasion i've been that dullard that I'm sure the Koreans wanted to molt.

The_Conservative · Joined: 15 Mar 2007

Young FRANKenstein · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:14 am Post subject:

bnrockin · Joined: 27 Feb 2006

I had a budding start working 5 months ago and the school was pretty excited about him coming because "he could be friends with XXXX who was pretty lonely"...even though he had been there for 7 months and still didn't seem to have any friends. While I can totally sympathize with the loneliness and chilling with a guy from work every so often who doesn't have the best social life, the last thing you usually want is a project. There is occasionally a reason as to why they have no friends after 7 months.

oneofthesarahs · Joined: 05 Nov 2006 Location: Sacheon City

I once had an entire entourage of geeky middle school boys. I was walking to work one day, and I got the "HI HELLO YOU ARE SEXY NICE TO MEET YOU" from a couple of obnoxious middle schoolers, whom I ignored like usual. After I had walked past, I heard a "Hey lady! Hey!" I turned around and was met by three different middle school boys. I was expecting more "nice to meet you"s, but one of the boys stuck his hand out and said, "Hi. Sorry for the other boys. They very crazy." "Rude boys!!" chimed in one of the others. They were quite sweet, and we had a rudimentary conversation: we introduced ourselves, etc.

After that, every single time I would pass by that middle school they would run up to me and try to talk to me, and the amount of them kept increasing. They would give me random things and were always trying to get me to go places with them. I always declined, but I did once pass them playing soccer in the park on Saturday and they convinced me to join in for a few moments.

Nice kids, but it was obvious they were the dorky kids at school and they thought they were pretty damn cool by being "friends" with me.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

I have noticed in my time that mostly the retards talk to me. Oddly, our complaints strike me as rather similar to the complaints of Asian women in North America. "Why do these losers hit on me and not my white friend?"

Merlyn · Joined: 08 Dec 2004 Location: Korea

I've got to agree. I've had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting a lot of retards here. When I'm talking to Korean people about my experiences in Korea they're usually shocked. Take for example my lunch at a KFC in Gangnam one Saturday. I was sitting by myself getting ready to eat. A Korean woman, who looked normal enough, started looking at me as she walked by my table. She said something in Korean, which I didn't understand, sat down at my table and started helping herself to my zinger burger and fries. Strange, as it was to everyone else's amazement in the restaurant as well. This is just the tip of the iceberg kind of stuff that has happened to me here.

oskinny1 · Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Location: Right behind you!

OneWayTraffic · Joined: 14 Mar 2005

We're convenient targets. Sometimes I have my headphones in, even when the sound is off.

On the other hand some are really interesting and just want to speak in English for a bit. Once I was in the subway reading "A Demon Haunted World" and one of the middle aged guys next to me looked at it and said, "Ah, Carl Sagan. A great man." For an opening line it sure beats, "Do you know the four seasons?"